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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Dropbox partners with Microsoft for closer integration with its cloud Office apps

Microsoft has inked a partnership deal with Dropbox that will being improved integration between the two services.

The move means Dropbox users will soon be able to access their Dropbox files directly from Office apps, and edit Office files from the Dropbox app.

The deal, announced by Dropbox’s Ilya Fushman in a blog post on Tuesday, means users will also be able to easily share Dropbox links from Office, so once you’re done editing a particular document, you’ll be able to quickly share it with friends or colleagues by firing off a link.

“Dropbox is home to over 35 billion Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations,” Fushman said in the post. “That’s why we’re partnering with Microsoft to help you do more on your phones, tablets, and the Web.”

Speaking to The Verge about the partnership, Kirk Koenigsbauer, head of Microsoft’s Office Engineering team, said that access to Dropbox content “popped as one of the very first [Office for iPad] requests that customers had.”

Koenigsbauer added, “They want access to where their content is. We’re doing it to make sure customers have a great experience.”

Dropbox is set to appear together with Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage option in the Office for iPad app, allowing Dropbox users to work on Office documents from within the app.

The new feature is free for all of Dropbox’s basic and pro users, though its business customers will require an Office 365 subscription. Hop over to Dropbox’s business blog here to find out more. The changes will land for Dropbox users on iOS and Android in the coming weeks.

At some point next year the features will also come to the Web “by adding integrations between the Dropbox website and Office Online,” Fushman said, adding as a side note that the startup will also be launching a Dropbox app for Windows Phone and Windows tablet users in the coming months.